Somewhere Back in Rukongai
by machiavellianFictionist
Summary: Small story about the early days of my character Uechi Sora. Originally written for Halcyon Days. I don't own Bleach, Kubo Taito does. Rated M for violence.
1. The Courier

It was a cold night in the fifty-fourth district of Rukongai. Sora didn't liked to go that far away from his safe-house, but in those days, people didn't want to get that deep into the gutters of the soul society, and for that reason, if you wanted a decent target, you had to go closer to the court of "pure souls", as they called themselves. Sora had been waiting for two hours so far, and was starting to wonder if the hint they gave him was true.

_This guy can't be running this late. I'm surely being set up here,_ Sora thought, hiding besides some garbage bags in a dark alley; _I mean, no matter what they say they are nothing but a bunch of scoundrels. They could just order a henchman to kill me when I get the package, or when I deliver it. I should be ready for that, just in case…_

A man stepped into the alley, and Sora stopped thinking about his future course of action to focus on this intruder. The man was dressed with a long dark cloak, which covered his entire body. His features were unclear, because of the shadows covering him from the moonlight, but anyone could have seen that he was extremely nervous. His steps were unusually quick and clumsy, and he was breathing heavily, such that Sora could hear his agitated grunts from many feet away.

_There you are..._

Sora waited for the man to get closer, hidden as he was, crouching behind the garbage. When he was at his range, the mugger fierily jumped towards his victim, unsheathing his knife and rolling behind his prey, slicing through his right ankle. Not even giving his victim enough time to scream, he cut through the fabric of his cloak and into his arm, afterwards pulling a small package from under the wounded limb, through the hole he had previously done.

Leaving the bleeding man behind him, he fled from the alley, hearing his victim's cries for help, while he ran to the shelter of the exterior districts.

Leaning on a rough wooden wall, in a dark corner of a cheap tavern in the seventy-sixth district Sora took another sip of his beer, only to realize it was almost empty already. He looked at the bottom of the dirty glass and saw his own reflection in the soaked surface, as if it was a mirror. He saw his chaotically arranged hair, his pale, dirty face and his bloodshot eyes. He dedicated a smirk at his unnerving looks, not that he needed to be even slightly good looking for his line of work.

He looked at the rest of the room, hoping to find the person he had been told would meet him there. The other clients were busy talking to each other over the shabby looking tables that seemed to have their legs buried in the ground, which made Sora think that the floor was actually just the dirt accumulated over the years.

"Another round, Yuzo," Sora said to the blind barman, who had lost his sight in a bar fight many years ago, but had developed an excellent hearing.

Yuzo took the glass from Sora's hand, filled it with more beer and put it in Uechi's hand. However, this one was too busy to say thanks, as a man wearing a white hooded robe who had just entered the tavern gave him the coded sign for Sora to go to him.

"Do you have it?" The man asked Sora when he took a seat by him.

"Wait just a second," Sora looked back at the barman to see if they were being listened, as Yuzo had a very loose tongue.

The barman, however, was standing at the other end of the bar, leaning towards the table were a group of three young and apparently drunken women were talking and giggling, while a perverted smile drew in Yuzo's lips.

"You sick bastard..." Sora whispered. "All right," he then said to the man, "I guess it's safe to talk now. Here's what you asked for," the outlaw pulled out the package from his ragged clothes and put it on the table.

"Is this really it?" The man opened a corner of the envelope and looked inside, "This is magnificent, Uechi! This will really help us to reach our goals."

"Yeah, yeah, but what about my part?" Sora asked, reaching out his open hand to the man."

"Oh, yeah, here it is," the man said putting a small bag on Sora's hand, making a light metallically sound. "Uechi," he continued, "I know you're only doing this for the money, but I want you to at least consider joining our cause. You should understand out motives, as you live in the exterior districts as well. We protect Rukongai because Seireitei can't!"

Sora opened the bag and started counting the money, "I appreciate your offer, but I think I'm better off as a freelancer. I don't want to wear a leash, you know. This reminds me, I have business to take care of somewhere else."

"Very well," the man said, "I guess we shall be seeing each other some other time then. Farewell, Uechi."

Without saying goodbye, Sora stood up, dropped some coins for Yuzo on top of the bar and walked out the door. He then turned into an alley and started walking away. He suddenly heard a brief grunting sound coming from behind him, but kept walking.

A voice came from behind him, "Freeze, and give me the fucking mon... Agh!"

The mugger couldn't finish his sentence, as Sora's right hand went flashing out of his pocket holding his knife, and so the sharp blade cut through the young criminal's stomach, almost ripping is guts out. The mugger, realizing the danger he was in, turned around and started to run, but Sora lunged towards him, almost throwing himself at his prey, burying his blade in the lower back of the mugger, who then fell to the floor. Sora looked down on him, shook the blood off his knife and put it back under his clothes.

"Crawl back to your hole, you worthless scum," he said while turning around, "if you can, that's it.

Sora heard the grunts and cries of the mugger, who was crawling away from him, as he kept on walking towards his shelter, grinning cruelly.


	2. Takeback

"Yaaaaawn!" Sora got up on his feet and let out a long, loud moan.

The criminal grabbed his bag of money and hid it beneath his clothes, and then he did the same with his knife and walked out the door, closing the door behind it and cloaking the entrance with some bushes. It was almost noon already, and the streets of the seventy-eight district were almost empty, save for a couple of beggars or thieves, as most of the inhabitants of the district were inside the taverns now. Sora stretched his muscles a couple of times and headed to Yuzo's tavern, as he did every morning.

"Good morning, Sora!" Yuzo said when the criminal sat in front of the bar. "Will you be having the same as every day?"

"Make it double this time, Yuzo," Sora said while dropping some money on the barman's hand. "And add some rice and bread too."

"Oh!" the blind man said raising his eyebrows. "You had a good night yesterday, didn't you?"

"Nothing you need to know about, Yuzo," said Sora, "just do your job and let me be."

The barman laughed and poured Sora a drink, then yelled the rest of the order to the back room, and gave the criminal the glass of liquor. Someone came into the bar and the scoundrel turned around violently, almost spilling some of his booze. However, the man simple sat down and ordered a beer, and Sora went back to his drink.

_Fuck, I'm going paranoid,_ Sora thought while biting a piece of bread._How could they have possibly tracked me? I looked back at every corner, I walked in circles for hours, and I even ran on the rooftops for a while!_

The criminal grabbed the bowl of rice with both hands and used his chopsticks to push the chunks of food to his mouth, eating them hastily. There was a long day ahead of him, lots of potential targets, and perhaps a contract or two. While Sora was planning his day, he almost didn't noticed the man walking onto him by his side, or the second man walking closer to him by his back.

"You really thought you could get out of this that easily?" Sora heard the man talking. "You mess with us, and now you have to suffer the consciences."

The man took his hand to his robes before the young criminal could, and the short metallic blade, reached by the sunlight, shined in a way that hurt the criminal's eyes. He knew that drinking so early had left him in no shape for a fight. Then, he heard the sound of a compact solid body flying through the air and of a hard blunt object colliding with a head. Sora threw himself to the ground, unsheathed his knife and, almost missing for an inch, managed to stab the first man's foot with his blade. While the man yelled and stumbled backwards, the criminal stood up and saw the body of the second thug lying on the dirt behind him and the barman standing behind the bar with a lead pipe in his hand.

"Wait," the blind man said, just as the reaper opened his mouth to speak, "there are more out there."

Indeed, the drunken criminal could see the silhouette of four more henchmen, just before they came storming into the tavern. The four men looked much more though than the first two, and they all wore the same purple band on their arms, just as the first thugs. Right after the henchmen came in, the thug whose foot was stabbed by Sora stumbled and fell over a table were, unfortunately for him, two other men were drinking, who obviously weren't pleased by someone spilling their booze.

One of them broke his empty bottle on the thug's head, and then the other one threw the now unconscious henchman to his partners, who, seeing how their friend was attacked, drew their knifes and clubs and charged to the drunken pair. Soon, the whole tavern was in a savage brawl. The tables were being turned over and slammed against the walls, bottles were being thrown, the drunken customers were beating whoever they could get their hands on and Sora could have sworn he saw a finger flying through the air.

"Seems like you've been saved by your damn luck once again," Yuzo said while jumping over the bar towards the fighting mob of drunkards. "Now, if you excuse me, I've got to stop these bastards before they tear down my tavern."

With this, the blind man took his lead pipe with one hand and a bottle with the other one and charged against the mob. Meanwhile, the reaper slipped out of the room unnoticed and quickly walked away from the tavern.

_Fuck,_ the scoundrel thought as he walked towards his safe house,_how the hell could they track me down? Maybe that guy who hired me didn't cover his tracks..? No, he's used to this kind of deals; he knows how to go unnoticed. Hmm... Or perhaps I was followed by someone who knows a bit more about tracking than me._

He opened the secret entrance, hidden by some cardboard and garbage, and entered the small hole, carved underground. The cave was barely six foot tall, with six square foot of space, enough for a bedroll and a battered crate. From the crate, Sora took a couple of small packages, a knife wrapped in a cloth that one day was white, and a small bottle, all of which he put carefully in small sacks tied to his waist, concealing them under his clothes.

_I can't go back to Yuzo's now,_he thought._I'm sure he'll be fine without me anyways. Now I just need to find someone who can tell me more about those thugs, the criminal remembered the purple band he saw on the henchmen's arms, I think I know just where to go._

A little more than an hour later, now a little more sober, Sora reached the end of a long alley, a large black wooden door, in the eightieth district. He whistled loudly three times in a row, and then knocked four times and finally, a couple of seconds later kicked the door loudly.

"What do we want?" Sora heard the creepy cavernous voice coming from behind the ebony door. Although he had heard it many times before, he could not help feeling a sharp cold wave going down his spine.

"Information," the criminal spoke quietly, "we want information."

Just after he finished pronouncing the password, a clicking sound indicated that the locks had been opened from inside, and Sora pushed the door open, smelling the characteristic scent of narcotics, and walked in holding his breath.


	3. Seek and Destroy

"Welcome to my humble home," the voice came from the darkness, which now that the door had close behind Sora, surrounded the criminal.

"Hello, Seer," Sora said, trying as hard as he could not to breathe. "I have some questions for you."

The Seer is how the ones who knew about him called the old man. He was a knowledge merchant, and Sora was one of the few who had been stubborn enough to find him.

"Yes, yes, you always do," the man exhaled and Sora closed his eyes as the opium reached his face. "But you must remember my services have a certain cost. Knowledge is power, and so to maintain the balance of power, when I give something away, I must receive something of equal value."

"There's a gang whose members wear a purple band around their arms," Sora untied one of his sacks and tossed it in front of him. "I believe this should be enough."

Sora heard the sound of the sack being opened and of someone unfolding several pieces of parchment.

"Yeeees," the voice said, "this will do just fine. Now, there is only one operative gang with that uses the color purple. You will find all you need to know about them here."

Sora felt a small projectile flying towards him. A small cloth sack hit his chest ad fell on his hands. Almost running out of breathe, the scoundrel made a small bow and walked back towards the black door. He then opened it and ran out of the room, closing the door shut behind him and breathed heavily, coughing for the lack of oxygen.

Back at his shelter, the scoundrel read the contents of the package carefully. _The gang is called the Purple Sparrow. It had been active for more than two hundred years, though its power had been at its peak since about twenty years, as a rumor started running, that said that they had acquired a strange, dangerous artifact that could be used effectively against shinigami. Because of these rumors, the gang was attacked by the reapers about fifteen years ago. Miko Hibiki, the head of the gang survived, but it lost many soldiers, and it is unsure if they still possess the artifact, or if they even had it in the first place..._ The rest of the document was a register of the gang activities, territory, properties, and hierarchy.

_Yes! Here it is!_ Sora found what he was looking for,_their schedule..._

Apparently, the head of the gang had a thing for soba, particularly the one they served in a small restaurant in district fifty-seven. He had lunch every day from Monday to Friday near nine o'clock, just after the gang meetings, usually escorted by from four to six bodyguards.

_Great,_ the scoundrel thought, _that gives me all the time I need._

Sora opened his money pouch and counted how many coins he had left. Looking satisfied, he stood up and headed for the apothecary.

"Five bottles of sake, three noodle soups, three salmon rolls and one special soba."

"Yes, Miko-san. I'll be back in no time," the waiter said and leaved the room.

The leader was sitting at the end of the table, with three henchmen at each side. They had requested the same private room they always did, but fortunately for the young criminal, its walls were as thin as any other.

Sneaking behind the walls, Sora found the back door to the kitchen, and, after making sure nobody was watching, then silently slipped through the door. The kitchen was not as crowded as Sora though it would be, but still, if someone actually saw him he would have no excuse for being there, and starting a fight by himself in a public place with enemies in the next room would be really stupid. Luckily for him, he found a blue apron hanging on a nearby hook, and so, now disguised as an employee, ventured deeper in the kitchen.

"Hey you!"

The scoundrel turned around startled, and saw one of the cooks standing next to a table with bowls, dishes and some bottles on two metal trays.

"You're the new one, right?" he said, and without waiting for an answer. "I'm leaving early, tell Kei to take these to the private room."

Right after the man left, the scoundrel took a few vials from one of his pouches and walked towards the dishes.

_The red with the white one, wait until it turns pink then add the grey dust to dissimulate the color, add the yellow catalyst if it's a liquid meal,_ Sora mentally repeated the formulas as he mixed the normally harmless powders and seeds,_and for the big boss, I think it was the orange? Yes, orange with green._

Just after he finished, a young man, almost a kid, walked in, "Hey, is Miko-san's order ready?"

"Yes," the young criminal said, supposing the man was Kei, "you should take it right away."

The man did so, and Sora waited for a few seconds before taking off the apron and going out of the kitchen. The resaurant was quite empty for that time of the night. Perhaps that was one of the reasons the Purple Sparrows' head chose this place. He saw Kei coming out of a room with the empty trays, carelessly leaving the door only half-shut. He walked to the door and looked into the room the men were in.

Unsuspectingly, the boss and his bodyguards started eating their meals, and before Sora's eyes, each one of then fell under the effects of the poison. The henchmen stopped moving suddenly, with terror in their eyes, as they already knew they were finished. The boss watched how his men fell on the table, and tried to scream, but all that came from his mouth was a low grasp. Then it was when Sora entered the room.

He ran on top of the table and jumped against the crime boss, tackling him to the floor and sticking his knife in his stomach. Though the weakening poison wouldn't let him scream, the scoundrel knew he could still feel the pain.

"I guess you must be Uechi Sora," the head of the gang muttered after a few seconds.

"You sent your thugs after me," he answered, twisting his blade.

"Well," Miko said, enduring the pain in silence, "you did attack one of ours. We couldn't let something like that stay unanswered."

"Is that so? I wonder how're you going to answer once you're dead, Miko." Sora unsheathed his other knife and pressed it against the man's throat.

"You want to kill me? He," the man managed to laugh a bit. "Sure go ahead, but Miko Hibiki will never truly die. You want to know how the Sparrows survived for so many years? Because there have been four Miko's so far. My death will only mean the rise of another leader."

"What?" Sora said. "No wonder I felt this had been all too easy..."

"Yes, you see..." the crime boss explained, "The first Miko was weak, he trusted in his men too much and so his right hand killed him in his sleep and took his place. About fifty years later, the first Miko's heir poisoned him as a vengeance and took his grandfather's position back. He was our strongest leader, but even he wasn't able to stop the reapers from taking our treasure."

"Wait, your treasure?" Sora interrupted, "You mean they took..."

"Yes, they took our relic!" the man confirmed the young scoundrel's suspicions, "They were afraid of its power, and so they took it from us, together with the life of our leader."

"And then what of the package?" the scoundrel asked, putting more pressure on his knife, "What of the package I stole for the Sin Qua Non?"

"A mere decoy," the fourth Miko explained. "Only a small circle of gang members know that we no longer have the artifact. After all, what made the Sparrows so feared was his power to threaten the shinigami, and so we couldn't let something like that come out."

"So if the SQN has a decoy..." Sora reasoned.

"They're not going to be very happy with you!" Miko made the closes thing he could to a smile. "They've been following you since they found out the package was garbage! In fact, I believe they might be out there right now!"

He wasn't wrong, through the paper door the young criminal could see the shadows of three men, who a second later stormed into the room. Though they were not wearing their traditional white robes, he recognized the face of one of them, his former contractor.

_Fuck, this doesn't look right._

He quickly sliced Miko's throat with one knife and with the other hand he cut through the first attacker, who having charged against him, fell helplessly against the light wooden wall, which not being built to stand such assaults, collapsed under the weight of the wounded man. Sora jumped though the hole in the wall towards the dark streets, followed by the two Sin Qua Non hitmen. And so the scoundrel ran from his pursuers through the streets of Rukongai. He knew he had to seek a crowded place to escape, and so he entered the first building he saw that had the door open, a tavern.

"Ah! It's a criminal!" one of the clients yelled.

_Oh, shit,_ concentrated as he was, he didn't noticed that he had came in running with blood on his clothes and his knifes in his hands.

He didn't have time to explain, as the SQN assassin was entering the room right at that moment. Pushing the people aside, he attacked Sora, but the criminal moved aside, and so a terrified customer got the blade in his arm, giving Sora the chance to move to a more advantageous position. The people, scared as they were, scattered giving the two men enough room to fight. Sora made sure to put the tables between him and his enemy, but he jumped over them and tried to reach the young criminal. He then grabbed one of the bottles, which appeared to have high liquor content, and threw it towards the Sin Qua Non hitman. Blinded because of the liquor in his eyes, he couldn't didn't notice Sora picking up the oil lantern until it was already crashing against him, igniting the drink and turning him into a flaming torch. Screaming with pain, he began running around the room, luckily not hitting the walls, as a fire in a wooden building would result in tragedy. The customers and employees wisely evacuated the tavern, leaving the burning man and Sora inside. This last one gripped both of his knives tightly, and rammed towards his opponent stretching his arms forwards. Just as he felt the two blades piercing the tug's chest, he let go off the handles and ran out the front door.

Just outside of the building, Sora stopped to get some air, as the public was too panicked to try to stop him, and saw the other man walking towards him from beneath the mob. He was going to start running away again, but then a voice came from behind him.

"Spinner of fate, unwind and cast yourself. Bakudou number four, Hainawa!"

A rope suddenly came out of nowhere and wrapped around Sora's body. The scoundrel then felt someone pulling the rope, and making him fall to the ground. He looked up, and saw a man dressed with a black kosode carrying a sword under a white himo.

"I've got you, murderer," the reaper said. "You'll be rotting in Maggot's Nest for a long time."


End file.
